Overnight Open Thread (4-13-2016) - Oopsie Poopsie Edition

The government of Shanghai says that under new rules residents who fail to visit their elderly parents will get black marks on their credit records.

A new set of regulations released recently by the government of the eastern city says that adult children living apart from their parents should "visit or send greetings often." Parents who think their children are not fulfilling this responsibility can file lawsuits against them for neglect.

Liberal opinion in Britain has, for more than two decades, maintained that most Muslims are just like everyone else. Britain desperately wants to think of its Muslims as versions of the Great British Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain, or the cheeky-chappie athlete Mo Farah. But thanks to the most detailed and comprehensive survey of British Muslim opinion yet conducted, we now know that just isn't how it is.

-- Trevor Phillips, former head of Britain's Equalities and Human Rights Commission

Each of you, my young friends, will find in life some personal "Westerplatte." Some measure of tasks that have to be undertaken and fulfilled. Some rightful cause for which one cannot avoid fighting. Some duty, or necessity, which one cannot shun. From which one cannot desert. Finally, some order of truth and values, which must be held and defended, like this Westerplatte, within oneself and around oneself.

The Thing went undetected for years because it was small, required no power source, and was not an active transmitter. Rather it worked by modulating incoming microwave signals with room audio and re-radiating it at a different harmonic frequency. To power it the Soviets had to beam a strong UHF signal at the embassy and have a good receiver listening on the harmonic frequency.

63Quote the bible- get expelled. Scary stuff coming out of Britain (no longer Great). The quote was from a private facebook discussionlater made public, not at school. But a little further down the page is a 20 minute video about men that have used the transgender bathroom laws to sneak into women's bathrooms and video or spy on the women folk. Many of them registered sex offenders.

65
I saw Boz Scaggs in NYC on July 13, 1977 -- which was the night of the big blackout. Jeff Porcaro kept drumming with the lights out until he finally realized something was up. He later died in a Bizarre Gardening Accident.

If you have a chance to see Boz he's in fine form with a solid band. His voice has actually gotten better with time. He does blues R&B ballads rock and even threw into two cajun songs

68
A man walks in to a bar and he says that he can fart the Star Spangled Banner. The bartender agrees, and he gathers everyone around to watch. The man gets a stern look on his face, he climbs up onto the bar, pulls down his pants and points his ass at the fancy mirror behind the bar. He bends over, grunts and sends with two quick shit-filled explosive blasts all over the fancy tequila bottles.
The bartender says: "What the holy hell was that?"
The man says: "Hey even Frank Sinatra has to clear his throat."

70
53 18, Great drummer, but Porcaro has been dead more than 20 years...

Posted by: JoeF. at April 13, 2016 11:28 PM (8HGb7)

There's a little-known album, "James Newton Howard and Friends" that was recorded at Sheffield Labs in Montecito, California that really shows Porcaro at the top of his game. It was recorded direct-to-lp-master with a digital copy. Each side was done in a single take. Besides percussion, every other instrument is a Yamaha synth, played by an LA session musician.

Posted by: cthulhu at April 13, 2016 11:39 PM (EzgxV)

71
Steely Dan has been touring regularly with an outstanding band. Musically they may may be the best touring band around.

Appreciate the kind words. I was a young obnoxious punk on top of the world until I was dumped by my college girlfriend. The realization that not everything goes the way I want it to led me to reassess the messages I was sending -- and realize that I'd frequently hurt people I cared about by not considering their situation.

Posted by: cthulhu at April 13, 2016 11:48 PM (EzgxV)

88
Steely Dan has been touring regularly with an outstanding band. Musically they may may be the best touring band around.
Posted by: Ignoramus at April 13, 2016 11:39 PM (bQxkN)

I wouldn't bet against Ian Andersons band at the moment. They've been on the road basically 2 years

I couldn't agree more.
I almost sent a couple emails today, but decided against it (I don't want to bother these good folks).
But, it's what that guy does. Regularly. Not the first time, won't be the last...

Posted by: Chi at April 13, 2016 11:49 PM (Te2JU)

92
My bubble was 47 but I really have no idea what it means...as far as I can tell not eating at shitty chains often works against you

97
I saw a documentary on National Lampoon on the weekend. Shows what an influence it had our comedy and even the broader culture.

God those guys were outrageous -- e.g. Animal House is tame compared to a lot of the rest of what they did.

They would be crucified today for putting out even a single issue.

Posted by: Ignoramus at April 13, 2016 11:51 PM (bQxkN)

98
Who is the gaucho, amigo?
Why is he standing in your spangled leather poncho
with the alligator shoes?
Bodacious cowboys
such as your friend
will never be welcome here
high in the Custerdome

Posted by: qdpsteve at April 13, 2016 11:51 PM (ntObR)

99
92 My bubble was 47 but I really have no idea what it means...as far as I can tell not eating at shitty chains often works against you
Posted by: H Badger at April 13, 2016 11:49 PM (+xIXD)

I almost never go out to eat as it is. I have owned a pickup truck though.

Posted by: Insomniac at April 13, 2016 11:51 PM (0mRoj)

100
Just dropped by, or in, or something to compliment the ONT on not going all- cap lunacy. The ONT is like an island of sanity here, and does that make any sense at all? If you all allow me, I'll just hang around here until the daywalkers get their electoshock treatments. Place has gone nuts.
Course I'll have to adjust my sleep cycles, quit my job, sleep alone, get some sort of blue light blocker........

110
....except it never was a "band", as such. It was Fagan and Becker and whatever studio guys ended up on the wax.
Posted by: cthulhu
------------------
Which was usually 35+ of the best studio musicians of their day.

If you told me that I could only take ONE album with me on that deserted island?
Gaucho.

Quite true in their heyday, but they have a cast of regulars now that have done all their stuff for the last ten years and more. e.g. the Stones steal Cindy Mozelle away as their #1 backup when they do their tours, but she always come back to the Dan

Posted by: Ignoramus at April 13, 2016 11:55 PM (bQxkN)

116
I'm pretty sure it impossible to get under a 40 bubbled score if you live in Texas.

Also, do assholes go around quizzing their neighbors on degrees acquired?

Read the story of the album at Wiki, apparently Becker and Fagen had all kinds of trouble getting it completed, including having to dump a song after an engineer accidentally erased the master... this after literally months of supposedly trying to get that one track perfect.

129
Two guitarists who were all over the place in the 1970s, Skunk Baxter and Joe Walsh. Both great.

Posted by: qdpsteve at April 13, 2016 11:58 PM (ntObR)

130
110 ....except it never was a "band", as such. It was Fagan and Becker and whatever studio guys ended up on the wax.
Posted by: cthulhu
------------------
Which was usually 35+ of the best studio musicians of their day.

If you told me that I could only take ONE album with me on that deserted island?
Gaucho.

Posted by: Chi at April 13, 2016 11:54 PM (Te2JU)

I'd probably go for Aja over Gaucho.....

Posted by: cthulhu at April 13, 2016 11:58 PM (EzgxV)

131
"I'm pretty sure it impossible to get under a 40 bubbled score if you live in Texas. "

Apparently there is a bunch of Left Wing lunatics who unironically post in a magazine called "Jacobin". Apparently in this magazine, they allow grad students who rant idiotically how the Constitution is for suxxors!

I had not heard of most of the TC shows they listed nor seen a single one of the movies.

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at April 14, 2016 12:03 AM (9ym/8)

152
I met the mother of my children/ex-wife/she was just supposed to be a booty-call, "through family". I impregnated her with my son the first hour we were together, and that's being generous. After marriage (thanks a lot Vegas) and two more children (girls), it ended badly.

Now if they would be so kind as to beat the Cubbies. I'm sick of their fans already ordering their World Series tickets.

The Mets are driving me nuts, getting great pitching as expected other than Matz the other night being unable to shake the rust, but they're not hitting even bad pitching right now. Every marginal pitcher looks like Kershaw against them. They've got the talent to hit, but it drives me nuts waiting for them to break out of a teamwide hitting slump. Then there's Terry Collins bullpen management for drama even when they do manage to score.

Saw that happen today. It all got kind of stupid,so I checked out. I really don't like the tribal warfare, and fight-picking.

Posted by: kraken at April 14, 2016 12:07 AM (sdxPm)

167Worst part of spying on Desdemona: having to communicate in Moors' code.Posted by: Othello at April 14, 2016 12:06 AM (Z1+Wk)

Is that like Moor's law where it gets twice as complicated every two years?

Posted by: Kindltot at April 14, 2016 12:07 AM (TVASf)

168
Scored a 63 on the Charles Murray test. If they had
asked about sleazy honky-tonks and sleeping on the sidewalk, I might
have bumped that up a bit.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at April 13, 2016 11:34 PM (9mTYi)

I have actually been to the Dew Drop Inn of "The Waltons" fame. It is a shit hole of a honky-tonk that we stopped at when my granddad took us up into the mountains to see the homestead where he grew up.Even without a question about honky-tonks, I scored a 75 on that quiz.

170
..."The Mets are driving me nuts, getting great pitching as expected other than Matz the other night being unable to shake the rust, but they're not hitting even bad pitching right now. Every marginal pitcher looks like Kershaw against them. They've got the talent to hit, but it drives me nuts waiting for them to break out of a teamwide hitting slump. Then there's Terry Collins bullpen management for drama even when they do manage to score."
-Posted by: kbdabear at April 14, 2016 12:05 AM (G3ZCw)

Nearly every great studio drummer has played with Steely Dan. Jim Gordon -- who wrote the second half of Layla -- played drums on the Dan's third album and brought along the son of his friend, Jeff Porcaro. Jim and Jeff played double drums on Parkers Band, when Jeff was 17 or 18. Jeff than played 9 of 10 tracks on the 4th album, Katy Lied. The 10th track was drummed by the legend of legends, Hal Blaine

Posted by: Ignoramus at April 14, 2016 12:10 AM (bQxkN)

179
Didn't find much funny on that thread, it was ( to me) juvenile when it got going.

Guess I'll keep what commenting I do here on the ONT.
Posted by: irongrampa at April 14, 2016 12:02 AM (P/8aq)

IG, glad your still around. Lately you have to pick and choose what threads you want to be involved in. I do. I still scroll through but any T/C fight threads I'm out. I think the horde was just blowing off steam through humor rather than fighting. Still a shit ton of good folks here.

204
The closest restaurant to your house is inside a gas station. And the menu was not in English.

Posted by: Lauren at April 14, 2016 12:08 AM (+xTTN)

The menu was in English, but until we moved recently (to a much less gunfire-y neighborhood) the closest food establishment was inside the BP Gas Station a block away from our house. Their cook made most excellent soul food (pigs feet, pork chop sandwiches, collard greens, mac and cheese, bologna burgers and really good peach cobbler).

209
I got a 48 on that bubble score. To be completely honest, I'm sort of bubble elite-ass, but I'm country redneck elite. I ain't nothing like the cultural elite that runs this shit show of a country.

225
It's the movies and restaurant chains that got me, I'm sure. I do not go to movie theaters -- cold day in hell -- and I do not go to those chain restaurants. There are the local ones with their own local flavor, thank you very much. And they ain't some snotty fancy pants joints, either.

When I was a kid we'd get a churchkey and use it to pop holes around the lower end of a coffee can. Then we'd flip the can upside down over a lit candle, fry up some bologna for sandwiches.

If you're old enough to be on my lawn you know what I am talking about.

Posted by: tbodie at April 14, 2016 12:23 AM (hQt/L)

230
>>The menu was in English, but until we moved recently (to a much less gunfire-y neighborhood) <<<

Morning coffee get together conversation started off with "how many did you hear" and "which direction did they come from".

Posted by: Ralph at April 14, 2016 12:24 AM (gjgWX)

231The menu was in English, but until we moved recently (to a much less gunfire-y neighborhood) the closest food establishment was inside the BP Gas Station a block away from our house. Their cook made most excellent soul food (pigs feet, pork chop sandwiches, collard greens, mac and cheese, bologna burgers and really good peach cobbler).
Posted by: redbanzai
---------------
Send me some GPS coordinates, please!
I might find myself in that area next week - do they know how to fry a chicken liver?

(BTW, a BP around the corner from me has the best soul food you've ever tasted! )

Posted by: Chi at April 14, 2016 12:24 AM (Te2JU)

232
Publius, we don't go to chain restaurants either. I like the hole in the wall places.

243
I imagine the bubble test author acknowledges the limitations of his test (as ever, too lazy to check).

Because people with active open minds and a bit of curiosity usually don't have to walk a mile in someone else's shoes to understand their perspective. Just a matter of thinking.

Most of the most "bubbled" people I know would score middling scores. They are bubbled because they are incurious, crippled by strong assumptions/bigotries from the outset, and marinating in nonsense and supportive crap (media, pop culture) 24 hours a day.

I don't think it's about bubbles - those are always entirely a product of an individual's own choices, predilections, abilities, habits.

And it's really about thinking, or not thinking, critically.

Posted by: rhomboid at April 14, 2016 12:29 AM (QDnY+)

244
My grandma used to make fried bologna for me when I was young. I miss her.

Yep, and it wasn't that fancy-schmancy Oscar Meyer bologna, either. It was the kind the meat market guy cut off a huge log of grainy mystery meat. And it was spelled "baloney" right there on the package.

Posted by: Captain Whitebread On The All-Night Request Line at April 14, 2016 12:29 AM (rJUlF)

248
Penguins up on the Rangers, 1-0. They actually look like they may get out of the first round this year.

Being raised by commonsense parents did the trick. Doing ag work at 10 keeps you real.

Hang around smokers because it triggers flashbacks. That way I don't need one... today.

Posted by: Headless Body of Agnew at April 14, 2016 12:30 AM (HOB9K)

250
65 points on the quiz. Probably would have been higher if he would not have listed shitty movies and TV shows as choices. You don't need a quiz to know that people who grew up wealthy haven't experienced what non wealthy people have and vice versa. That doesn't mean that you necessarily 'live' in a bubble. I don't expect the wealthy to have experienced searching for quarters to wash their clothes but aren't aware of laundromats.

252
Yep, Charles Murray's idea of things here isn't quite right. There's nothing wrong with the state of being elite. It's just that our particular brand of elites here who runs things are a bunch of raving lunatics.

You can be elite without being a snob. I have to think about it long and hard to come up with just how I'd put things and classify things.

Me, I have a contrarian streak that doesn't want to go along with the crowd. You're not going to see me anywhere near outlets of mass-market cultural rot LIV shit.

253
Bubble quiz is poorly constructed, and scoring has such huge overlaps between categories as to be nearly meaningless.

How to make fire with a lemon. Well, lessee. You need a lemon, steel wool, 5 steel nails, wire, and 5 copper nails. Riiiight! I always have those in my pockets when I get lost in the woods. How about a Bic lighter instead?

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at April 14, 2016 12:30 AM (UsLZp)

254
Posted by: jake at April 14, 2016 12:23 AM (92+OH)
Here's a question. How do I keep mice out of my car engine?
It rained last week so I drove my Tahoe. I opened my hood to put the trickle charger on my car and I found this.
http://tinypic.com/r/301pzx0/9
I live on a ranch.
I don't open the hood unless I'm not going to drive the car for a while.

Yes, I have lived in poverty,and if Obama gets his way, I will be again. When I was a kid, we lived subsistence in Alaska. Shoot a moose and catch fish and grow veggies and taters, or perish. We were just fine, thank you.

Yes, I have lived for extended periods in towns with as few as 400 people. I'm from Alaska. We do that. Wisconsin, too, for that matter. Mazomanie finally has more than 5,000 to count, but you can bet most of them are on farms.

I have wrapped packages, cleaned fish, bussed tables, waited tables, answered phones and mucked out barns for a living. Right now I make soap, in a tiny factory, and yes, everything hurts. That's why God made weekends.

I also have a Master's Degree and an architectural license, some of my friends have Doctorates, some drive trucks, one hauls trash, and such.

I think that survey is a pile of horse manure, something I'm sure the author of said survey has never shoveled a day in his life.

Posted by: tcn in AK at April 14, 2016 12:31 AM (+YMhA)

256
CaliGirl, I know that supposedly math and music are related in the brain.

Posted by: qdpsteve at April 14, 2016 12:31 AM (ntObR)

257
My grandma used to make fried bologna for me when I was young. I miss her.

Posted by: Lauren at April 14, 2016 12:29 AM (+xTTN)

It is amazing how hooked to our memories food can be.

Posted by: redbanzai at April 14, 2016 12:31 AM (nUJM6)

258
If you're into music there are some recent documentaries that are fun and insightful. They've been on Netflix and may still be.

One is on the Muscle Schoals AL studio and their house band. The first thing they recorded was a song sung by a sharecropper's son who lived down the road, Percy Sledge. Aretha Franklin made her name here. These guys got a bit of pay, but no fame. Except Duane Allman. Hearing Wilson Pickett's cover of Hey Jude over in England, Eric Clapton went on a mission to find the guy who did the outro guitar lead. He expected to find an old black guy.

Another is on LA's Wrecking Crew, where Hal Blaine was the #1 drummer. They were Phil Spector's Wall of Sound and then did more. These guys got pay, most got no fame, but a few broke out on their own. Glen Campbell, Leon Russell, Sonny & Cher.

Standing in the Shadows of Motown is about Motown's house band, the Funk Brothers. These guys got no money and no fame. Bass player James Jamerson may be the best of all time, and hardly anyone know his name.

It's amazing how much these three groups of musicians influenced all of our popular music in the 1960s and 1970s.

262
I don't open the hood unless I'm not going to drive the car for a while.
Posted by: CaliGirl at April 14, 2016 12:31 AM (egOGm)

Dryer sheets. It works in the camper, which we fold up and put away for the winter. I got tired of having to replace mouse-pissed-upon cushions, so now I load the floor with dryer sheets before we put it away. Works like a charm.

I'm sure it was a fine cut of meat. Don't mind the eyelashes and hoof chunks.

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at April 14, 2016 12:32 AM (9ym/8)

264
Gunfire: I'm delighted that, occasionally, depending on atmospherics/acoustic conditions, I can hear gunfire. M240s and M2s, at the USMC range a few miles away. In a comfortable suburb of a major coastal city. I'm sure more idiots, er, people around this area would be upset if they even knew what they were hearing. Heh.

Posted by: rhomboid at April 14, 2016 12:33 AM (QDnY+)

265
I got a 60 on the test.
They probably gave me serious points for checking Waffle House with enthusiasm.

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at April 14, 2016 12:33 AM (T/5A0)

266
@Lauren- I score a 60? So thats the highest score on the Dumbshit Scale?

274
235 "i don't know most of my neighbors and like it that way."
------------
Not to be a dick, but me too. Keep your yard mowed, your dog outta my yard, no wild parties.....we're good. I don't need to make small-talk with you or anything. My time alone is precious.
Posted by: Ricardo Kill
---------------------

I'm the exact opposite.
I have been in, under, on top of or in the attic of 70% of the houses on my block.

Keep your friends close...

Posted by: Chi at April 14, 2016 12:36 AM (Te2JU)

275
In a comfortable suburb of a major coastal city. I'm sure more idiots, er, people around this area would be upset if they even knew what they were hearing. Heh.

Posted by: rhomboid at April 14, 2016 12:33 AM (QDnY+)

Every day at 5:00 sharp, we in Anchorage get to hear the National Anthem and then taps, courtesy of Joint Base Elmendorf-Ft. Richardson. It is a lovely sound.

Well yes....but I didn't go through the hell of cleaning a cereal bowl.

Fuckers never worked a day in their life and they want to cast aspersions. Fuck them. Fuck that grinned up quiz.

Gin?!?

-Hillary!!

Posted by: RWC - Team BOHICA at April 14, 2016 12:38 AM (hlMPp)

287
Hawks played a great game, tonight and lost on an ugly goal in OT.

Posted by: garrett at April 14, 2016 12:38 AM (xUVR8)

288
So the creeping cancer that is the left managed to get a ridiculous ordinance enacted. Our fishwrap is orgasmic about it, and wants the same for our county.

Posted by: irongrampa at April 14, 2016 12:37 AM (P/8aq)

That's easy. Always keep it on hand, and always be prepared to use it. You can explain that when you point it directly at the leftist asshat who feels the need to ring your doorbell to tell you to lock it up.

Posted by: tcn in AK at April 14, 2016 12:39 AM (+YMhA)

289
And how you had to cut little nicks in the edges or it would fold up onto/into itself as it contracted during the frying.

Mmm. Fried.

Posted by: andycanuck at April 14, 2016 12:32 AM (3MK6t)

Bologna burgers are really thick cut (about 1/2 inch) so they don't curl up. My grandma used to make us fried bologna using the thinner stuff though. She made no attempt to make it not pop up and called it bologna hats... we loved them

Posted by: redbanzai at April 14, 2016 12:39 AM (nUJM6)

290
You know, if I gave a shit about the NBA I might feel something about Kobe playing his last game. But, I don't give a shit about the NBA, so...........

Posted by: Puddleglum at April 14, 2016 12:40 AM (syGA0)

291
"No more gun on the nightstand or shotgun near the bed. Has to be secured.

No mention on how they plan to verify that.

It stems from a kid finding a loaded handgun with predictable results."

I think it would be that. Kid shoots self/someone else.....not "secured" and whammo. Also if the cops are called to your house and find an un-locked firearm in the open. Whammo again.

Used ones (only used, not new) are simply magic in the tumblers used to clean brass for reloading ammunition. Absorb suppress the dust and absorb the carbon/lead residues, like magic.

Walnut shell "lizard litter" from the pet store, used dryer sheets, mineral spirits, liquid car wax - and beautiful shiny brass (with even a hint of wax that makes resizing easier - though for rifle you add lube to each case at the press).

296
Posted by: tcn in AK at April 14, 2016 12:32 AM (+YMhA)
A rat chewed the wires on a new hauling truck we parked here over the winter, $4,000 worth of damage. The guy at the dealership found the rat. I saw the pic. It was huge.
Last week, they chewed the wires to the battery in the riding mower. I have a live trap trying to catch that one.
Do I put the dryer sheets in the engine compartment?

Posted by: CaliGirl at April 14, 2016 12:41 AM (egOGm)

297
GENEALOGIST DISCOVERS MICHAEL MOORE TO BE NEXT IN LINE AS PRINCE OF WHALES.

My mother's invaluable advice: Bake whatever you want to. If it fails, dump it over ice cream and claim that's what it's supposed to be. Works every damned time.

Posted by: tcn in AK at April 14, 2016 12:42 AM (+YMhA)

299
Bologna burgers are really thick cut (about 1/2 inch) so they don't curl up. My grandma used to make us fried bologna using the thinner stuff though. She made no attempt to make it not pop up and called it bologna hats... we loved them
Posted by: redbanzai
----------

See? We need to make up our own quiz: "Have you ever eaten fried bologna?" That would be worth at least 10 points.

I would add: "Have you ever slopped hogs?" Hell, that would be an easy 10 pointer.

308
it helps that i have a gator gate and enough land in between adjacent property lines no one can get close.

when i was growing up this valley was so quiet my pop's voice would echo when he'd yell at me. and if the horses got out at night i'd hear their clip clopping on the street and have to go catch a lead horse.

not anymore.

Posted by: concrete girl at April 14, 2016 12:45 AM (ceWrl)

309
Got a 50, but we don't eat out much (and they didn't list Silver Diner!), got out to movies, or watch much TV. Some of the questions were maybe--I wore a uniform for a volunteer job, how does that count?

Posted by: Lirio100 at April 14, 2016 12:45 AM (WY8ka)

310
"I would add: "Have you ever slopped hogs?" Hell, that would be an easy 10 pointer."

Please, allow me.

-Castrated a bull calf.

-Replaced a hydraulic hose.

-Operated a reloading press.

-Bowled a deer head.

-Played high school football.

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at April 14, 2016 12:45 AM (9ym/8)

311
I would add: "Have you ever slopped hogs?" Hell, that would be an easy 10 pointer.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at April 14, 2016 12:42 AM (mxCgt)

Also a good question, how many Waylon Jennings/Merle Haggard/George Jones songs do you know?

Posted by: redbanzai at April 14, 2016 12:45 AM (nUJM6)

312See? We need to make up our own quiz: "Have you ever eaten fried bologna?" That would be worth at least 10 points.

The Krauts have a thing called Leberkaese, sometimes sold as veal loaf, which is very much like bologna except you slice it much thicker. Fried with fried eggs it's an awesome breakfast.

Interesting that someone upthread took the test on behalf of their kids. I did too, and it was depressing.

When my father's family had chicken for dinner it meant Mom went out back and killed one. I've murdered some waterfowl and the occasional grouse. My kids think chicken comes from cellophane.

324
Another question... do you know what scrapple is and have you ever eaten it?

My answer would be yes and sliced and fried on white toast with mustard.

Posted by: redbanzai at April 14, 2016 12:49 AM (nUJM6)

325
Rhomboid,
I like la simpatia in Guadalupe. They have a bar too. Good food. Also in Guadalupe I like Guadalupe restaraunt. They deep fry thick bacon for breakfast.
Charlies in Los Alamos is a burger joint, but they make really good tacos and chili rellanos and chili verde but it's red.
Not really a hole in the wall but it's good is industrial eats in buellton.

Posted by: CaliGirl at April 14, 2016 12:49 AM (egOGm)

326
Like I said in my first comment on it, I imagine the author of the bubble test realizes it's a crude instrument.

Most importantly, it's absolutely not the case that one has to score high on the test to understand and sympathize with the actual important problems facing the high-scorers, and support policies to address them. Of course most low-scorers don't - but that's because they're incurious, lazy, attached to their bigotries and tribal myths, or (increasingly, though still a small group) making bank on the problems (think "green energy" employee/investor vs. real energy worker/investor).

Posted by: rhomboid at April 14, 2016 12:50 AM (QDnY+)

327
I'm sure there's a little "people of wal-mart" derision to this, but it does help illustrate cultural differences. When the brothers of de la salle recommended my father attend college, my grandmother scoffed-"we" didn't do that, and besides, dad had a good job boxing undershirts at the Munsingwear plant. He ran away to enlist in the Navy, but his just as brilliant brother worked his whole life in the sewers of St. Paul, cause it was a good, stable, city job.

In the future most of the contitents have sunk (I think). A naval ship on it's first voyage with a new crew is going on a training mission and attacked by another ship from the same training mission. The ship that was attacked managed to damage the attacking ship and escape, but now for some reason their ship is being reported sa being taken over...

345
CaliGirl, gracias! I've actually eaten at a decent Mexican place in Buellton (east of the 101, in that shopping mall on the south side).

Guadalupe, of course! Should have guessed.

Yeah - Los Alamos is now a "thing" with food, based on what I read. Funny, I've stopped there for gas many times.

Will note your intel in my travel info.

Of course Jocko's is already on the list for the non-cheap dinner night (hope it doesn't change due to ownership, or am I thinking of someplace else?). And it's hard not to hit Hitching Post #1 when we're in the area.

347
I forget, tcn, what planet are you from?
Posted by: Ricardo Kill at April 14, 2016 12:51 AM (9ym/

It works really well! You get the bucket with a lid, and cut a hole in the lid, and put a CLEAN toilet plunger through that hole. Clothes, soap and water in, a few swishes with the plunger, pour out the water, add rinse water, you get the idea.

We had no electricity, so we hung clothes out to dry. In the winter. It worked like a charm, so long as you brought them inside before you tried to fold them.

Posted by: tcn in AK at April 14, 2016 12:55 AM (+YMhA)

348
hi allI actually had a great day today, hope everyone else did tooscored a 36 on the quiz, guess that makes me only kinda-bubbly?anyway I can't stay up too late tonight, so just wanted to check in

Posted by: chemjeff at April 14, 2016 12:55 AM (uZNvH)

349
Jake,
My car is in the garage. I use glue traps, snap traps and bait stations. I haven't filled the T's because the Owls have babies and I'm trying not to use as much poison.
I'm thinking about making a bucket mouse trap.

379
qdp - not sure if the restaurant still is there (wow, memory/attention issues, I guess), but I stayed at the Andersen's hotel a few years ago. Was great - cheap, jacuzzi was right out back. Nice diner across the street, ate breakfast there.

The Mexican place is not "hole in the wall" aesthetically, just authentic and pretty good. Also not far from Andersen's.

Speaking of Andersen's - not sure if "any relation", because the abundance of Danish sorts in those parts, but Andersen's restaurant/deli on State St. in SB is outstanding. Usually stop there on the drive north for lunch.

382
Rhomboid,
Some recommendations for Los Alamos are bell street cafe. Exspensive but so good. Pork sandwich and the meatloaf sandwich are really good.
Flatbreads is another exspensive one but really good.
Flatbreads is only open Thurs - Sunday, no lunch
Bell street is open Thursday-Monday, no dinner. Made yelps top 100 restaurants.
I like dos Carlitos in Santa ynez, Red Barn, Santa ynez,
Santa ynez kitchen. All exspensive.

Posted by: CaliGirl at April 14, 2016 01:02 AM (egOGm)

383
Depends... was there jail time involved? Gunfire? Both worth +10 points each.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at April 14, 2016 12:59 AM (mxCgt)

LOL... not for me personally but several of my granddad's people spent time in jail for moonshining.

Posted by: redbanzai at April 14, 2016 01:02 AM (nUJM6)

384
"
Also a good question, how many Waylon Jennings/Merle Haggard/George Jones songs do you know?"

Just watched the Jimmie Johns Sub sandwich commercial with the hispanic family. As usual, Daddy gets no respect until he delivers the goodies, in this case, delivery food. Daddy also looks like an overweight schlub that manages a chain store or CarMax.

At the end, the wife winks at the delivery guy, who compared to daddy looks pretty buff and manly. He smiles back. So, in the imaginary backstory, is she schtupping the JJ delivery dude?

407
I was never much of an NBA fan anyway. I only watch it at work now because there all NBA fans here. He had a great game tonight (60 points) and his wife has impressive assets. I also want to kick George Lopez in the nads. What a douche.

413
Ever since Ace's mind regressed to its present psychotic state I've activated AdBlock for this site and so should you. Do not allow Ace's handlers to rob him blind while the wrecked delusional man recovers his faculties.

423
So, uh, you did 20 yearsturned 21 in prison doing Life without parole?

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at April 14, 2016 01:06 AM (9ym/

FIFY

Posted by: redbanzai at April 14, 2016 01:12 AM (nUJM6)

424
One of my great grandmothers, paternal grandmother's mother, I believe, went into labor while picking cotton. She just skipped over to the other side of the row and headed back home, picking all the way, and then went in the house with the older women, spit out the new kid and was back at it the next day, they said.

I did, and responded to it. I did a wonderful red-necky thing today. Took apart my defunct down-hole well pump, with its burnt-out half-horse electric motor. Decided it would be nice to salvage the copper wire from the windings. Except they were all potted in resin of some kind, very throughly. So I stood the stator on end, filled the cavity with some good Alberta bituminous coal, and lit it with a propane torch. Then I rigged up the blow gun from my air compressor to send a gentle stream of air into the bottom of the cylinder. It took over an hour, and I had to add more coal, twice, but at the end it really got going, and I had a foot-long jet of pale orange flame roaring out the top, and the melted resin was burning off the wires like wax from a candle wick. Took it two hours to cool down, too. But when I was done, all the resin was gone, all the insulating paper, and most of the varnish on the wire itself. Got about a pound of copper out of that puppy. For a few cents' worth of coal.

you gotta kill a lot of mice and also find out what is drawing them in.

dog food?
cat food?
something else

they are hanging out by your truck for some reason

we had a mouse prob while I fed the hounds outside, in the back yard.

once I stopped doing that , no more mices.

Posted by: jake at April 14, 2016 01:14 AM (92+OH)

430
CaliGirl, that's where we ate! (Ellen's across from Andersen's). I still remember the waitress was classic, central casting diner material - told me I would be making a mistake if I didn't get one item I asked her about.

We used to do a "familial legend" about Andersens that basically used the intro to "The Beverley Hillbillies" to explain why the restaurant exists. Instead of oil, of course, they found pea soup.

Posted by: cthulhu at April 14, 2016 01:16 AM (EzgxV)

437
So, I'm supposed to use the dryer sheets like steel wool? I think the mice would use them for a nest?
I use dryer sheets to deter moths.

Posted by: CaliGirl at April 14, 2016 01:12 AM (egOGm)

No. Some scent in the dryer sheets repels them. Works for some people, some mice.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at April 14, 2016 01:16 AM (UsLZp)

438
Garret,
I didn't know to add antifreeze, I would only use that in the garage or barn where no non target animals could get to it.
I'm making one tomorrow. I about died when I saw that nest in my car.

Sorry for the confusion. My fault for sometimes turning this part of the ONT into a central/So Cal travel discussion.

Posted by: rhomboid at April 14, 2016 01:18 AM (QDnY+)

441
Had an overwhelming mouse problem they invaded and kept reproducing. The Victor mouse traps couldn't keep up. I bought poison pellets (warfarin I think) and put them in every corner and cranny. In short order my house was clear.

Posted by: Ralph at April 14, 2016 01:19 AM (gjgWX)

442
Ah geez. Story at the Daily Caller about a guy who went to the dentist to have an absess removed...

woke up hours later naked, with no teeth left in his mouth.

Posted by: qdpsteve at April 14, 2016 01:19 AM (ntObR)

443Scored 53 on the bubble test. A big part of it, I think, was having lived for 20 years in a smallish working class town in the Upper Midwest. The missus smokes, we have bought mass market beer and I walked / worked in factory floors for secen years. As for the mass media questions, I haven't watched a single one of the choices.

448
441 Had an overwhelming mouse problem they invaded and kept reproducing. The Victor mouse traps couldn't keep up. I bought poison pellets (warfarin I think) and put them in every corner and cranny. In short order my house was clear.

Posted by: Ralph at April 14, 2016 01:19 AM (gjgWX)

I just got me an Australian Terrier. No rodents of any kind, in the house or yard, after about three days.

But a very well fed and entertained terrier.

Posted by: tcn in AK at April 14, 2016 01:20 AM (+YMhA)

449
Yeah, Andersen's tried franchising for a while but I don't think it worked out.

Get a cat, preferably a male.
A feral, male cat. Neuter it, or not.
Maybe get several.
Rodents, gone.

Posted by: navybrat at April 14, 2016 01:23 AM (8QGte)

451
I got a 52, I live in New York City and am completely urban, but I grew up poor in a poor neighborhood. This survey is a clumsy tool, sad to say, although I like the idea of it. The restaurant options question seems silly to me - why don't they include McDonald's? I would add a question like 'have you been a crime victim" because it is a surefire 'bubble remover."

Turn the bastards loose and they'd find a mouse and rip it to pieces. Bloody and vicious.

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at April 14, 2016 01:24 AM (9ym/8)

454
Posted by: jake at April 14, 2016 01:14 AM (92+OH)
The truck was parked under the trees next to ivy all winter, we won't do that again.
There is nothing in my garage to eat. It's warm and dry. We kill a ton of mice. We have chickens, but they are far from the garage. 500 yards maybe.
I am going to put dryer sheets out there tomorrow.

Posted by: CaliGirl at April 14, 2016 01:24 AM (egOGm)

455
My cat Dexter (featured on the Saturday Pet page) will attack and kill with extreme prejudice any rodent that he can get to.

Posted by: navybrat at April 14, 2016 01:24 AM (8QGte)

456
437
No. Some scent in the dryer sheets repels them. Works for some people, some mice.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at April 14, 2016 01:16 AM (UsLZp)

,,,,,,,,

ok got it now
you had the snap trap in a paper bag idea, at least I think

Posted by: jake at April 14, 2016 01:26 AM (92+OH)

457
Rhomboid,
I like that diner, great breakfast. That's funny you ate there.

Closest I can claim is drinking home-made wine from ceramic jugs. And then local hooch (called - no kidding - "cha cha") from a jar. Western Georgia (republic, not state), at the home of the former KGB boss of Kutaisi (Georgia's second largest city).

But the memorable part was the cheese-bread (khachapuri) made in cast-iron forms in the coals of a big open fireplace in the kitchen (separate little building next to the house). Cold rainy night. Amazing.

Posted by: rhomboid at April 14, 2016 01:26 AM (QDnY+)

459
Well, somewhere in a huge stack of boxes is a 3 terabyte USB 3 drive. Other than that, my file server is once again complete (and now quiet and cool).

Unfortunately, PC cases are not designed that well below the $100 price-point, so everything's a *little* harder than necessary.

Torque, to then-girlfriend: "I aired up your spare tire if you have to swap it. Um, do you know how to do that? I can give a quick how-to course."

Then-girlfriend: "I pay AAA to do those sorts of things for me."

::: several months later :::

Then-girlfriend calls. "I have a flat. I'm waiting for AAA to show up."

::: two hours later :::

"They never showed. Can you come do this for me?"

Posted by: torquewrench at April 14, 2016 01:29 AM (noWW6)

462
Yeah, the mouse invasion happened after the loss of my 2 cats and a dog. (A bad year) And they kept the snakes away also. And the rabbits.

There is a feral cat living on the premises and she's doing a pretty good job.

Posted by: Ralph at April 14, 2016 01:30 AM (gjgWX)

463
Hmm, just recalled Ace's last thread:
"You ever think you're just releasing some pressure, as you do several times a day, and then you suddenly realize, just as that hot bubble of horror erupts..., "

Now, that there is a bubble.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at April 14, 2016 01:30 AM (9mTYi)

464
427
BTW, did you catch the link to the Land Rover on the last thread?

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at April 14, 2016 01:03 AM (mxCgt)

I did, and responded to it. I did a wonderful red-necky thing today. Took apart my defunct down-hole well pump, with its burnt-out half-horse electric motor. Decided it would be nice to salvage the copper wire from the windings. Except they were all potted in resin of some kind, very throughly. So I stood the stator on end, filled the cavity with some good Alberta bituminous coal, and lit it with a propane torch. Then I rigged up the blow gun from my air compressor to send a gentle stream of air into the bottom of the cylinder. It took over an hour, and I had to add more coal, twice, but at the end it really got going, and I had a foot-long jet of pale orange flame roaring out the top, and the melted resin was burning off the wires like wax from a candle wick. Took it two hours to cool down, too. But when I was done, all the resin was gone, all the insulating paper, and most of the varnish on the wire itself. Got about a pound of copper out of that puppy. For a few cents' worth of coal.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at April 14, 2016 01:13 AM (UsLZp)

But, but.....think of the carbon offsets!!!!!

Posted by: cthulhu at April 14, 2016 01:30 AM (EzgxV)

465
What is the snap trap in a paper bag? I use glue traps in boxes with small holes cut in the ends in the chicken coop.

Posted by: CaliGirl at April 14, 2016 01:31 AM (egOGm)

466
vivi, welcome - you new to the HQ or the ONT? Just don't recall the nickname.

As you said, the bubble survey is a crude tool - but I'm sure the author, who is a savvy guy, realizes that.

I just shake my head at the question about political disagreements with friends/acquaintances. Many of us live isolated, in some ways closeted existences, surrounded by clueless people who are not even worth engaging. Oh - and in my case, these are exclusively low-scoring, bubblish, urban/coastal "educated" types.

"Clueless" as citizens, voters, citizens of the world, that is.

Posted by: rhomboid at April 14, 2016 01:32 AM (QDnY+)

467
I envy the diversity of the Bristol chart,
The full gamut from solid cylinder to shart.

My output tends to be more austere.
It merely varies a bit 'twixt yellow and clear.

Posted by: schlong bard at April 14, 2016 01:33 AM (Z1+Wk)

468
my mom had a 12 lbs. Yorkshire terrier that was a killing machine.

the hound would crunch one rodent then drop it while it was still quivering and go hunt down the next one.

awesome spectcal, unfortunately Betsy the Yorkie died a few years ago.

Posted by: jake at April 14, 2016 01:34 AM (92+OH)

469
I've got a severe case of Brain-Lag, so I must dismiss myself from any one of many conversations.

470
441 Had an overwhelming mouse problem they invaded and kept reproducing. The Victor mouse traps couldn't keep up. I bought poison pellets (warfarin I think) and put them in every corner and cranny. In short order my house was clear.

Posted by: Ralph at April 14, 2016 01:19 AM (gjgWX)

As an added bonus, the anticoagulant baits make them extremely thirsty as the damage adds up, so they find their way outside to find water before they expire.

476
444 There was an Andersen's in northern San Diego county (Carlsbad). The windmill is still there.

I never liked pea soup, but my family stopped there at least once (our trip to Hearst Castle, I believe).

Posted by: rhomboid at April 14, 2016 01:20 AM (QDnY+)

That one is gone, but the one in Santa Nella is still there (for a total of 3 at peak).

Posted by: cthulhu at April 14, 2016 01:37 AM (EzgxV)

477
Posted by: cthulhu at April 14, 2016 01:37 AM (EzgxV)
I haven't eaten at pea soup since I was a kid.

Posted by: CaliGirl at April 14, 2016 01:38 AM (egOGm)

478
CaliGirl that's an impressive array of predators to predate the rodents. We're down to red-tail hawks and a very occasional coyote or red fox here. For some reason nobody seems to have outdoor cats like when I was growing up.

I'm sure another nest will soon appear, but two summers ago I committed rat genocide, think I killed an entire nest that was a threat to my tomatoes. 11 or 12 confirmed kills, I think. Good old school traps with the big metal U-shaped thinggy. Cheese. "Thwack!"

Posted by: rhomboid at April 14, 2016 01:38 AM (QDnY+)

479
The best do-it-yourself mousetrap I ever saw was a 5 gallon bucket with water in the bottom. There's a teeter-totter with bait on the end, and it drops the mouse in. It was made to reset itself after every rodent with a magnet.

481
Hi, Rhomboid - I"d call you "Rhom" except you'd sound like the mayor of Chicago. I'm actually a long time lurker to both, and a very occasional commenter. I'm a lifelong New Yorker and I've walked out of dinner parties and evenings with friends because they got shrill and screechy over my politics. Being on the right side of issues here is like being a Christian in Imperial Rome, so I come here to hang with my peeps.

the idea is put a loaded snap trap inside a paper bag on its side and when the trap gets a rodent, it is no mess just pick up the bag and toss it.

I used to do a similar thing with news paper but the critter would land off the paper.

Which was not as easy of disposal as when they landed on the newspaper

Posted by: jake at April 14, 2016 01:41 AM (92+OH)

483
Rhomboid,
We have coyotes and red foxes too. I lift up the food and water containers in the chicken coop and the chickens eat the mice. The chickens are cat like. They eat the babies.

Posted by: CaliGirl at April 14, 2016 01:42 AM (egOGm)

484
477 Posted by: cthulhu at April 14, 2016 01:37 AM (EzgxV)
I haven't eaten at pea soup since I was a kid.

Posted by: CaliGirl at April 14, 2016 01:38 AM (egOGm)

You never do the tourist stuff that you grow up next to -- I only did the Santa Barbara zoo after I'd moved away.

Posted by: cthulhu at April 14, 2016 01:43 AM (EzgxV)

485
BourbonChicken,
I saw that one on YouTube. I may make both kind of bucket traps.

Posted by: CaliGirl at April 14, 2016 01:44 AM (egOGm)

486
Well great to have you vivi. Don't be a stranger, er, lurker. And don't be afraid of the day threads, they're not always, um, ..... well, like today's!

I've never had to walk out of a social event - but that's because I just deflect/avoid with the mastery of someone accustomed to making small talk with (literally) enemy personnel.

I liken my situation (and yours, and that of many) to being an undercover FBI agent at a KKK rally. WTF? Do these people *really* believe this nonsense? This is what it's like for a reasonably worldly, informed, thinking person to listen to "educated" coastal/urban types parade their NPR-level ignorance, bigotry, and arrogance.

Posted by: rhomboid at April 14, 2016 01:45 AM (QDnY+)

487
Jake,
We use the snap traps again. I don't pick them up, my husband does.

492
I took that "bubble" quiz but it was so off-base and irrelevant to my life experience that my final score was meaningless. Much of the test was based on the notion that "educated" correlated strongly with "rich" or "successful," and that having or not having various types of jobs indicated your social class. There was no room for my immediate family environment and social class -- the highly educated but unemployed bohemian subculture. Bums with PhDs.

Outcasts we are. Average Joes loathe us, but the wealthy disdain us even more. So we eat arugula salads down by the railroad tracks and sing songs of pain and rejection, accompanied by One-Eyed Jake on the harpsichord.

Posted by: zombie at April 14, 2016 01:53 AM (jBuUi)

493
Really? We're going to talk about black people again for like an hour? Can't we talk about the Jews or the Pope just to mix things up?

508
I was going to settle in for a little bit, whilst I nursed my nightcap... but when I got home, I realized there's not a drop in the house. Bummed.

Saw some discussion of critter pests?

There were a couple of blackbirds building a nest up in... call it the rafters... of my front porch. Bits of dropped nesting material and splatters of bird poop under the area.

I considered various ways to discourage them, from chemical warfare (will this wasp spray drive them off?) to throwing some cat litter box cleanings up there, but these ideas had... potential drawbacks.

So, while moving some things in the house, a rubber snake gets knocked down, and I think, hey, the answer literally fell into my hands!

I hung the snake up where they were getting in.

This morning I noticed bits of nesting material dangling off the snake. I don't think they got the message.

516
Cthulhu Programming Note: in response to being laid-off, the fiancee is going to be having a ceremonial colonoscopy on Friday morning. Expect things to be that much more cheerful in the forthcoming 48 hours as she preps, I drive her to/from, and I monitor her recovery.

I think that everyone should schedule their colonoscopies for tax day.....it contributes so much to the mood.

526
If you told me that I could only take ONE album with me on that deserted island?
**looks at left hand**
Boston
**looks at right hand**
Head East - Flat as a Pancake
Yeah, I'm gonna cheat on this one.
Posted by: tbodie at April 13, 2016 11:58 PM

Now that's just awesome. I remember seeing Head East at the Red Lion in Bloomington IL when I was in college. You sir have great taste in music.

Posted by: Farmer at April 14, 2016 02:55 AM (o/90i)

527
That coupling graph is interesting, though there are a couple of points:

1) Who the hell ever met anyone at a restaurant? At a bar, sure. But not at a restaurant. At a bar that had a restaurant ... but that's really still a bar. I guess it sounds classier if you say you met in a restaurant ...

2) Why didn't they put the homosexual plots up there? They would be pretty easy and consistent. At a public restroom, at a softball game, and teaching in elementary school (meeting young prospects).

528
.....and I see in http://acecomments.mu.nu/?post=362799, @323, where I see someone might have gotten a clue why you don't incessantly push buttons at tender times. Because I'm a "fucking narcissist". An apology might be in order.

But not to me -- I could care. To them.....to everyone you hurt poking at their recent pain contrary to my heartfelt advice. I've been there and tried to save you, but you made me out as an asshole for trying.

I'm reminded of the scene in Miller's 'The Dark Knight Returns.' As part of his plan to fake Bruce Wayne's death and go underground, Alfred is blowing up Wayne Manor and has a fatal stroke at the moment of the blast. His final thought is "How appropriate."

Posted by: Epobirs at April 14, 2016 03:30 AM (IdCqF)

538
47 on the quiz. I don't know what the chain restaurant meals are worth but those haven't figured into my life much in the last year. Odd they didn't ask about fast food chains as well but maybe those are too common as lunch for those otherwise deep in a bubble.

==========
Again, go fuck yourself. Asking why someone died is not pushing buttons, you narcissist asshole. You really are sick.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at April 14, 2016 03:23 AM (iQIUe)

And, BTW, you are at imminent risk of being banhammered -- and I say this not because I have a special "in", but because it's very obvious -- ask any of the oldtimers. If a cob "calls" your hand, I'd recommend that you immediately "fold", lest you be removed from the game.

And I'd rather you stayed until you were civilized.

Posted by: cthulhu at April 14, 2016 03:36 AM (EzgxV)

540
>> It means you got a 51 on that whack-job quiz. Sadly, no
>> more than that.

I slept at my usual time today, woke refreshed and revitalized, ready to greet the day (or rather, the evening) with a glad cry and a heart full of the will to do things, and then went to lie down again.

I hear ya. I keep an unusual schedule, and it's a pretty slippery thing. Sometimes I'll get home from work, find something to do, then when I look up at the clock it's 2 PM. I didn't get up until 9 today.

Third shift is weird.

Posted by: Cato the Rebel Without a Party at April 14, 2016 04:03 AM (J+mig)

545The thing I don't get, and never will, is why 'rons have to take the trouble to gouge each other's eyes out over what amounts to a bunch of text in grey boxes. None of it means anything.

But I would point out that my text box is not grey. If yours is I would ask for a refund.

I would also add that asking how or why someone died is not inconsiderate or wrong. It happens at funerals and there is nothing wrong with it. Maybe not interrogating the family members during the service, but commenters hardly qualify as "family" and threads are not services.

547
Third shift is weird.
Posted by: Cato the Rebel Without a Party at April 14, 2016 04:03 AM (J+mig)
***
Yeah, they work us on the Panama Schedule - 12 hour shifts - 4 days on, four days off, three days on, three days off.

On paper, it leaves one lots of time to do things; as a practical matter, it makes one an unglamorous sort of vampire.

548
I would also add that asking how or why someone died is not inconsiderate or wrong. It happens at funerals and there is nothing wrong with it. Maybe not interrogating the family members during the service, but commenters hardly qualify as "family" and threads are not services.
Posted by: ThePrimordialOrderedPair at April 14, 2016 04:08 AM (zc3Db)
***
Some people are sort of touchy about death; I get that.

Those things are very helpful to any IT dork that's ever worked with an ISP. "Okay, did you ever change the password? Great, what model is it? Okay, it's monkeybutt. That's the default, give it a try." It's nice when you can solve the problem over the phone and not have to send a tech. They think you're geniuses and it keeps the customers loyal.

Posted by: Cato the Rebel Without a Party at April 14, 2016 06:09 AM (J+mig)

553
I scored a 30 on the bubble quiz but neither of the descriptions fits me. I like Charles Murray and I like these sorts of quizzes but I don't think this one says much. Needs better questions.

It's a decent idea, but I agree, the questions could have been a lot better. And there's just some people like me who are going to be outliers no matter what. 2nd generation middle class. Except for 14 years of grinding poverty between those states, being raised upper-mid until the family fortune was shredded by fraud, and establishing myself as lower-mid.

That kinda life history tends to skew your answers all over the map...

Posted by: Cato the Rebel Without a Party at April 14, 2016 06:13 AM (J+mig)

557Posted by: Cato the Rebel Without a Party at April 14, 2016 06:13 AM (J+mig)

I thought the restaurant questions were a bit weird - no diners? - and the TV show and movie questions didn't seem like they would indicate much, outside of having some taste if you didn't mark any of them. And a lot of the questions seemed to imply that one would necessarily be in a bubble if one didn't live in certain circumstances, which is certainly not true - not even generally true.

But, people love these sorts of quizzes (myself included) and almost everyone loves getting a single number score (man's obsession with lists and linearizing all information) so ... there's that. A bit of a disappointing end, though.

565
I think instead of having every state's primary spread over 6 months of calender time, we should use the time more wisely.

All 50 states go at once. The top 5 are kicked to the next round. Then the top 4. Then the top 3. Then the top 2. Then you've got a clear winner and the convention is just a formality to certify the results of Round 5 and promote your new candidate.

568
So, someone I can't mention on this thread says you'd be a fool not to consider someone else I can't mention on this thread gor a position I can't mention, on this thread.
The position here will be-

He said it. He owns it.
He said it but didn't really mean it.
Over there!! Squirrel!!

Posted by: teej at April 14, 2016 07:06 AM (0RM+L)

569
Took the quiz and scored a 42. Results said I could basically be anybody.

Glad I cleared that up.

Posted by: TrivialPursuer at April 14, 2016 07:14 AM (BNs9e)

570
Stink Test Time: What a detailed graph Paul Kirby drew from respondents to a survey first conducted in 2009, but which claims to provide data about relationships which began in 1934? Also, there are only eight ways that people meet to start relationships? What about newspaper want ads? No one met an "escort" and "Pretty Womaned" her out of circulation?

Posted by: Marooned at April 14, 2016 08:12 AM (XhyuK)

571
I watch "morning joe" to get the early line on the day's progressive fairy tale. Right now a former Treasury official is saying that the the average CEO's pay is now six times the average American worker. Not a word about the gap between the average senator's pay, or federal bureaucrat's pay and the average American worker's pay.

Look, it gets my heart rate up without me having to put on pants and go outside to run.

573
I believe that there will come a day when you become a better person. I regret that today is not the day. I continue to have hope for tomorrow.
Posted by: cthulhu at April 14, 2016 03:26 AM (EzgxV)

575And here is a VERY important follow up fact regarding that piece by Patrick J. Buchanan:

At the 1976 Republican National Convention, President Ford did not have enough delegates to secure the nomination. BUT he had amassed more delegates than Regan. And President Ford had one the plurality of the popular vote. And he had won more States. But it was a razor-close delegate contest. Fewer than 50 delegates separated Reagan and Ford until Ford managed to woo over enough uncommitted voters to secure 52% of the delegates. The final delegate tally was Reagan with 1,070 defeated by Ford with 1,187.

Now why is this important? Because in modern politics, no nominee for POTUS has been shoved out of the way despite having led in delegates, State wins, and total voter count. - Not even when it was close and the alternative was Ronald Reagan!

All these "arguments" that Donald Trump's Art of the Deal aura is bogus because his organization is being out-hustled by Cruz in the ground game of wooing delegates for 2nd+ ballot casting is bullshit. When it comes to deal making, you have to have leverage. And OF COURSE Donald Trump has no leverage with the GOP Establishment and the "Never Trump" factions and the Cruz for president people. How could he? Aside from corrupt bribes, Trump has nothing to leverage those delegates with. If he were to make a serious play at securing the loyalties of these Anti-Trump factions by employing an intricate ground game: Trump would only be lending credit to their jumping ship on the 2nd+ ballots. It would be foolish for him (or anyone else in a similar position - which no one else is) to play that game. It can only hurt him.

Instead, Trump is intelligently using the only leverage he's got: appropriate voter outrage at having their voices silenced by INSIDER Establishment gamesmanship whereby the grassroots are defeated on arcane technicalities designed by the Establishment.

But note that if Trump loses it won't be because he was "out hustled" by smarter political players. That's pure self deception on the part of Trump Haters. Rather, Trump if Trump loses it will be because he is willfully shut out by the Establishment using a Party system that was designed by the Establishment to shut out undesirables. - Even when an undesirable is elevated above all others by grassroots enthusiasm.

Maybe we win with Trump in November. (- I think we probably will.) Maybe we lose with him in November.

But we definitely lose with anyone else who is FOISTED on to the ticket against the will of an intensely enthusiastic grassroots movement.